The Chron­i­cle

BULAWAYO, Wednes­day, Au­gust 24,1966 — An African tried to bribe po­lice of­fi­cers to keep his case out of court af­ter he was ar­rested un­der the Witch­craft Sup­pres­sion Act, a Bulawayo mag­is­trate’s court was told yes­ter­day.

Chipiya was fined a to­tal of 40 pounds (or four months) and given a four month jail sen­tence con­di­tion­ally sus­pended for three years by the mag­is­trate, Mr BJ Car­pen­ter, for ac­cept­ing pay­ment for Witch­craft and at­tempt­ing to bribe a po­lice of­fi­cer. So­phie Ma­suku told the court that she went to Chipiya’s kraal on June 1 be­cause she had been ill.

She pre­vi­ously at­tended nearby a nearby clinic, but they were un­able to cure her. Chipiya told her she was preg­nant and gave her some “muti”. Ma­suku said she took the medicine twice and it cured her.

An African po­lice­man, Phillimon, said he searched Chipiya’s house at He­lensvale on Au­gust 1. He found “bones”, a rat­tle, a black horse swish, and a black cush­ion con­tain­ing medicines.

He said he un­der­stood they were con­nected with witch­craft. Chipiya had of­fered him and an­other con­sta­ble 1 pound each not to take his “magic things” and to keep his case out of court. They re­fused.

Chipiya ad­mit­ted at­tempt­ing to bribe the of­fi­cers.” I was very fright­ened to come to court”, he told Mr Car­pen­ter. He de­nied ac­cept­ing money from Ma­suku in pay­ment for his “muti”. He claimed he was given the 5s as a gift.